At Material Matters 2025, part of the London Design Festival, Jacob Marks presented Explorations in Pine Resin; a study of nature’s versatile material, once set aside in favour of petroleum-based alternatives. His exhibition demonstrates how traditional resources can be reimagined to address contemporary design challenges.
Three discoveries from the London Design Festival 2025 that reimagine how everyday objects can connect us to something deeper than just consumption. Instead of creating objects meant to be quickly replaced, these designers create objects that deepen in significance through use, challenging the disposable nature of contemporary material culture.
Payonke captures this seasonal intelligence. These bio-responsive mobiles contain Bacillus subtilis spores, probiotic bacteria naturally found in healthy soil. Each piece acts as a living sensor, curling and shifting with humidity changes, much like autumn plants responding to their environment.
Fishing nets became our medium for exploring resilience, both in a material and metaphorical sense. As we worked with these discarded materials, they revealed profound lessons about community.
Faux Flora is an innovative design project by Justina Alexandroff that tackles one of nature's most pressing challenges: how air pollution is making it harder for bees and other pollinators to find flowers. Born from scientific research during her MA in Material Futures at Central Saint Martins, this project creates artificial flowers that act as "guides" for confused pollinators in urban environments.
Our collaboration with Proxecto Bolina: Citizen Subscription Box 03 In the coastal village of A Guarda, nestled in Galicia on Spain’s Atlantic shore, tradition and innovation are finding common ground in Proxecto Bolina. This initiative emerged not in the hustle of a metropolis but in the quiet rhythm of a fishing town, one deeply shaped by the sea and generations of local craftsmanship.
We've always believed in finding beauty in what others overlook. Designer Zhiyi Zhou shares this philosophy; she's transforming the aromatherapy industry's botanical byproducts into something extraordinary.
Nature has always been communicating—we simply needed to learn how to listen. Wild Data emerges from this understanding, exploring how we can tune into the electrical signals that soil bacteria produce as they respond to their changing environment.
Teodoro's Hyper Wood project represents a fascinating convergence of biomimicry and circular economy principles, creating a biomaterial that honours timber's essential qualities without requiring a single tree.
In the hidden networks of soil ecosystems, mushrooms communicate through root-like structures called mycelium, exchanging not only chemical signals and information but also nutrients. In this journal entry, we celebrate how designer Peerasin Punxh has translated this natural system of communication into GROWinK—a CMYK inkjet technology that uses fungal pigments to create a fully bio-based printing solution.
Andrea Carrera, a biodesigner with a background in product design, created Micromentum—a project that reflects our belief in the transformative power of collaboration between human creativity and the living systems that surround us. This synergy perfectly captures our approach of working with nature rather than against it.
We've always been drawn to the stories behind materials – the ones that challenge what we think we know about waste, beauty, and possibility. So when we discovered Precious Peels, a project transforming humble eggplant peelings into translucent, light-catching surfaces, we knew we had to share it.